OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 269 



respect that I could ever discover, is the meat of the walrus when fresh- l^f^' 

 killed in the slightest degree offensive or unpalatable. The heart and liver v^-»->J 

 are indeed excellent. 



While our boats were thus engaged a light air, that had sprung up from the 

 southward, gradually increased, and as soon as our game was hoisted in we 

 bore up under all .sail along the land, which still continued so extremely low 

 that as the sun got round ahead we could scarcely distinguish its points, and 

 ran along chiefly guided by the soundings. In the course of the night we 

 passed thousands of Aval ruses, large herds of which were lying with their 

 young on almost every loose piece of ice wc saw. At midnight we were 

 abreast of three small islets, which I consider to be the northernmost of those 

 called by the Esquimaux " Ooglit," and so marked in the chart. We saw 

 something like huts or tents upon them, but no other signs of inhabitants: 

 we know however that they are at times a principal resort of many of the 

 Esquimaux; and Iligliuk first directed our attention to them as the birth- 

 place of her son. 



After an unobstructed night's run, during which we met with no ice ex- Tues. 16: 

 cept in some loose " streams," the water became so much shoaler as to make 

 it necessary to proceed with greater caution. Though the land along which 

 we had been sailing had all been nearly equally low, we now began to de- 

 crease our soundings to nine, eight, and seven fathoms, and the water ap- 

 peared much discoloured in some places. About this time also a great deal 

 of high land came in sight to the northward and eastward, which, on the 

 first inspection of the Esquimaux charts, we took to be the large portion of 

 land called Ktiyuk-tarruoke *, between which and the continent the pro- 

 mised strait lay that wa^; to lead us to the Avestward. So far all was satis- 

 factory; but after sailing a few miles farther it is impossible to describe 

 our disappointment and mortification in perceiving an unbroken sheet of ice 

 extending completely across the supposed passage from one land to the 

 other. It is important here to notice that our chief disappointment arose, 

 not from the mere presence of ice blocking up the desired passage, to which 

 our most anxious hopes had long by anticipation been directed, but from 

 the nature of the ice Avhich constituted our present impediment. This con- 

 sisted of a floe so level and continuous, that a single glance was sufficient to 



* This name being applied by the Esquimaux to several other portions of land, all of which 

 are insular, or nearly so, it is probable that the word simply signifies an island. 



